Guarding the Black Body and Mind When Traveling Through Higher Education

• In Event: The Possibilities of "Green Book" Approach to Higher Education

Abstract

This paper draws on the historical legacy of The Negro Motorist Green Book to reframe the modern higher education journey for Black students and families. It argues that while access to college has expanded, the pathways remain filled with invisible hazards that jeopardize students’ psychological, physiological, and academic well-being and long-term success. Drawing from multiple theories, it highlights how chronic, unsupported stress impacts learning, persistence, and health at the cellular level. Blending personal experience as a Black woman, first-generation college graduate, licensed trauma therapist, and college access champion, I offer a roadmap both for individual preservation and for institutional change. Universities are challenged to move beyond only offering counseling services toward embedding healing across campus life, including reimagining admissions, sustaining affinity spaces, training faculty, and incorporating indigenous and somatic wellness practices into counseling centers. Simultaneously, Black students and families are offered Green Book-inspired strategies for protecting psychological, physiological, and purposeful well-being throughout the higher education journey. The goal is not merely survival, but the preservation of the Black body, joy, and future possibility.

Author

• Tiffany Green, American University